Title: One Way
Disclaimer: BOOM! There goes my liability...
Rating: PG ( K+ ) – for...um...uh...I dunno, angst?
Spoilers: If I told you, that would totally defeat the point of warning you, wouldn't it?

Summary: OneShot...the sparks had only flown in one direction. One-sided NaruHina.

My DateMe entry for July. Pairing: NaruHina, Challenge: Sparks Fly

The hero doesn't always get the girl. Sometimes, he just doesn't want her...

For her first kiss, Hinata had always expected sparks to fly.

At least, that's what romantic movies and books had always taught her to anticipate. Soothing ambiance, lit candles, flower petals strewn all about...all the little details that were supposed to make her heart go pitter-patter for her knight in shining armor.

In certain ways, she hadn't been disappointed. The setting was perfect; a moonlit summer night in the midst of a Konoha street festival with the entire village in attendance. The streets were blocked off for the annual celebration, directing the foot traffic flow in more confined directions.

Of course, no one seemed particularly interested in leaving the designated path of packed earth as there were too many attractions to incite anyone from wandering too far off the main drag. Besides, there was a certain ambiance that had descended upon the warm summer's night, possibly a side effect of the soft glow of paper lanterns, scores of affectionate couples walking hand-in-hand from one booth to the next or the steady thrum of joyous voices that vibrated on the air.

Then again, maybe everything felt so special because she had been with Naruto.

They hadn't come to the festival together, nor were there arrangements for them to meet there, but fate seemed to be surveying Hinata with a friendly eye that night and brought them together nonetheless. At least, it had seemed so at the time.

"Hey, Hinata-chan!" he'd greeted, his pearly-white grin glaring out of the semi-darkness at her. "I didn't think I'd see you here. The Hyuugas don't seem like they like to party much."

"Oh, well, um...," she'd begun, feeling warm embarrassment seeping into her cheeks. "F-Father says it's good to support the village during celebrations."

"You're here with your family, then?"

"No...w-well, Neji-nii-san and Hanabi-chan are with me."

Naruto had taken that opportunity to swing his head left and right to scan the crowds around him. "Where?"

"We got separated," Hinata admitted, shyly dipping her head to look at her yukata-covered hands. "I th-think they went to see one of the shows."

"So you're lost?"

The timid Hyuuga heiress felt the blush in her cheeks intensify when he said this. "I s-suppose..."

"Then let's go find your family!" Naruto declared, raising his voice with enthusiasm. Without waiting for her to reply, he reached out and took hold of her wrist and proceeded to pull her down the street with him, shouting Neji's name at the top of his lungs. "NEJI! Hey, get out here, you smug jerk! Hinata-chan's looking for you!"

After only a few moments of stuttering humiliation, Hinata settled into Naruto's method of reuniting her with her party and began to enjoy the feeling of his hand wrapped around hers. She knew that there were no romantic intentions behind it, but it was still the closest she'd ever been to her crush outside of the classroom. This single thought made her smile as she averted her eyes from the back of his windbreaker.

"Man, where are they?" Naruto griped after a good ten minutes of fruitless searching, stopping dead in his tracks. "You'd think we'd have spotted them by – oof!"

Unaware of his intentions to halt, Hinata had run headlong into Naruto's chest as he'd turned around to complain to her face-to-face. Her excess momentum had sent them both sprawling to the ground in a heap with the Hyuuga heiress on top.

"S-Sorry!" Hinata had immediately apologized, pressing three of her fingers to her tingling lips after pulling them away from his. The heat in her cheeks was of the utmost intensity as the result of their little collision fully occurred to the stunned heiress. "I d-didn't mean to – "

"It's okay," Naruto had assured her smilingly, climbing to his feet unsteadily. He seemed completely unaffected by their mistaken interaction as he reached a hand out to her, but Hinata was willing to imagine that he was simply hiding it well. "Need help?"

Nodding, she lifted her trembling hand and deposited it into his steady palm, once again reveling in the feel of his fingers closing around her. This enabled her to pluck up enough courage to venture speaking once again. "Um – "

"Hey, it's Sakura-chan!" Naruto interrupted, withdrawing his hand from her to hold it over his eyes like a visor.

Indeed, standing right in their line of sight with her arms wrapped around one of Uchiha Sasuke's bicep was Haruno Sakura, her cotton candy-pink hair perfectly suited to her brightly-colored surroundings. She hadn't even turned at the sound of Naruto's voice, occupied as she was with keeping the struggling Sasuke within her clingy grasp.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called again, waving his free hand high in the air as he took a step toward her. He halted mid-step, however, and turned back to Hinata. "Oh, sorry, Hinata-chan. D'you think you could find your family by yourself?"

Clutching her fisted hand – the one that Naruto had grabbed twice tonight without provocation – over her heart, Hinata did her best to answer him with a smile. "Y-Yes, I'm fine, Naruto-kun."

"Great, I'll see you on Monday!" he shouted over his shoulder as he jogged away. He disappeared into the swarming crowd, chasing the splotch of bubblegum pink that was still visible between the packed bodies.

Hinata stared after him for a long time, allowing her hand to droop back down to her side and slacken as the disappointment spread throughout her body. The atmosphere no longer seemed enchanted, though nothing in her surroundings had changed a bit. All the same, it was all different.

In the end, Hinata had been successful in securing her first kiss from the boy she liked most in the world. And there had been a shock of excitement that had rendered her body numb as their lips met for the briefest of instants, but...the sparks had only flown in one direction.

— — —

Author's Note: Sorry, guys, but I dislike NaruHina as a romantic pairing n.n; I see it as rather pathetic on Hinata's part and completely implausible on Naruto's (he's cute, but dense). I'd much prefer them to hook up with other people and simply call themselves friends one day. Still, I suppose I can see how they could be cute together and don't consider myself horrified when people hook them up in fanart/fiction, hehe. They're just not for me, is all.

Anyway, this is my entry for DateMe's July contest. Vote for me...n.n;

. ( . Ms Videl Son . ) .